Wrong sign (neg) in default cash account for fund sale

[CGB]

Hi Mark,

Lately I am getting intermittent negative signs in the default cash account when I sell a fund (negative on both sides of the ledger). The cash account memo even says it is a sale. These are transactions that I am entering by hand, and I have to delete and re-enter them, or change the sign.

CGB

[Mark]

Hi CGB,

What exactly is negative? Your balance, or some figure in your cash transaction (price, shares, or value)?

You might watch the Tracking Cash tutorial on our tutorials page.

When you record a buy transaction in some investment, an equal value will be sold from your default cash account if assigned. Likewise, when you sell the proceeds are added to cash by recording a buy transaction.

[CGB]

I bought VEUSX and FM correctly deducted from the default cash account:
Date Price Shares Total Fee Type Memo
3/1/17 1.000 -10,000.000 -10,000.00 0.00 Redemption Bought 159.363 (VEUSX) Vdg Europe Stk

I sold VEMAX and FM incorrectly deducted from the default cash account:
Date Price Shares Total Fee Type Memo
3/1/17 1.000 -10,000.000 -10,000.00 0.00 Purchase Sold 306.843 (VEMAX) Vgd Emg Mkt Adm

This is intermittent as I catch up on some statements, but have been using FM since 1997-8 and havn't seen wrong signs before.

Opening the window to edit the transaction afterwards, there is a negative in front of the cash account value (-10,000) and the price is 1 but the number of shares is not exactly 10,000 until clicking on the box, and it jumps to 10,000.

CGB

[Mark]

Hi CGB,

It might be easier to debug this with a quick web conference. I am out of the office though through next week. Can you call the office after that, and we can take a look together?

[CGB]

Hi Mark,

This is still a problem. When I sell a fund the program deducts the amount from my default sweep account instead of adding it. When I buy a fund it correctly deducts it from the sweep account. Needless to say my sweep account goes very negative until I correct the negative sign.

Also, when I sell a fund the number of shares in the sweep account do not match the negative cash proceeds. Off in the 0.000XXX range, where the X's are.

[Mark]

Hi CGB,

Do you maybe have a negative price for your default cash account? Look in the Data Register under "Prices". All your prices should be 1.0 in cash.

If you sell something, those proceeds should normally get added to your cash. If you can't find the problem, why don't you give me a call, and we can do a quick web meeting.

[CGB]

Hi,

All the prices are positive 1.
This is intermittent.
Appears to be associated with small sweep share number errors 4 to 6 places to the right of the decimal point.

E.g. in sweep account "buy/sell transaction" dialog box, buy radio button on, but shows value: $-10,000.00 = shares: -10,000.000008 x price: 1

Sells from Sweep work correctly. So may show two red negative values lines one for a buy and one for a sell right above and below each other.

[Djobydjoba]

Hi,

Maybe a rounding issue with the cash account for some transactions recorded in foreign currencies?
This reminds me about this: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=2593

[Mark]

Hi CGB,

Thanks for showing me this problem via a phone/web meeting. It does look like there is a bug, but reproducing it seems to be difficult. I suspect it has something to do with the "Confirmation notices" option, and you're going to run with that off for a while, and see if it doesn't prevent the problem from happening again. We'll take a look here, and see if we can't identify any possible way that option could be causing this issue.

[CGB]

Thank you Mark.

I entered a couple dozen additional transactions with the confirmation notices off, and so far so good, and nicely quicker. I am keeping my fingers crossed that the glitch was related to the confirmation notices being on.

[Mark]

Hi CGB,

Thanks for the update, that is useful information.